Week 4 Midterm Essay Humanities

Humanities Week 4: midterm essay

Reflection is a very important part of the learning process, and an essential component of the Jesuit Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm of: Experience - Reflection - Action. Additionally, synthesis of material is necessary to demonstrate evidence of the higher registers of learning, and this class has been designed to be able to help students demonstrate ‘mastery’ over important concepts in the Humanities. In order to demonstrate ‘mastery’, a student needs to show that they can evaluate ideas, and to create new ideas within a particular discipline. Please keep these motivations in mind as you compose your essay.

From the beginning of this class, we have been working with the following definition of the Humanities:  the Humanities consist of the ways in which humans have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history, and language, in order to process, interpret, and document our world and the human experience.

Because we want you to be able to evaluate, see patterns, and to synthesize information, please draw on the materials you have read and learned, as well as your own work from Weeks 1 through 4, in order to answer the following questions in your essay (4- to 6-page, double-spaced, Times New Roman font size 12):

Please note: There is no single correct answer to any of these questions. These questions are open-ended because we want to see what you can identify and synthesize. 

1. Select one strand of the humanities (e.g., History/Culture, Visual Arts, Literary, Music). What elements of this strand seem to be specific or unique to a particular time period, and what elements seem to be shared across time periods?  

2. What is personally significant to YOU in your answer to question one? Does this change your definition of the humanities, or of the human condition?

3. Much of the history of interaction between people and cultures around the world during the period between 1400-1880 CE can be understood as an effect of global travel and trade. How do marginalized voices ('marginalized voices' refers to people from groups that often were/are treated as insignificant or peripheral, such as women, children, slaves, prisoners, etc.) change or inform your understanding of the globalized humanities from this time period?

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